Kaoru Aburame
Kaoru Aburame, better known as The Creeper of Konoha for the likewisely named insects inhabiting his body, is an infamous member of the ANBU of Konoha. He is a man raised entirely in the shadows of the ANBU, and bred to become the killer, the torturer and the ruthless Shinobi his village required. Kaoru specializes within the wicked arts of torture, assassination and body disposal, tasks he's known to perform with frightening ease and enthusiasm. Having been made into an ANBU at a young age, this was neither because of immense talent or great skill, but simply because his abilities were recognized to be particularily well-suited for the ANBU Black Ops if he was properly trained by them; and this prediction proved correct. Only a select few people in the world are aware of Kaoru's actual name, and many of these have met their end at his hands, or died of other causes - even Kaoru himself, is sometimes believed to have at least partially forgotten his name. This is because of the memories associated with his name, and how it ceased being of worth mere months after his birth; and these days he's known simply as The Creeper. The only known people aware of his actual name, are the ones who raised him. History An experiment, that was what Kaoru's birth was. Born to a lesser known and much less prestigious branch of the Aburame clan, Kaoru's emergence into the world was for the purpose of becoming a host of a new breed of insects - a family of parasites known as creepers, worm-like larvae bred for decades to allow their branch to gain the attention of the elders of Konoha and thus improve their own standing in the village. However, Kaoru was the first infant to ever survive this, all the other children were incompatible and as a result they typically died shortly after having the worms enter their bodies. There were only a few number of reasons why Kaoru persevered where others did not, chief among these was that the creepers, after generations of failed and amateurish breeding had developed a taste for human flesh due to the memory of all the hosts they had consumed in the past. Thus, shortly after they had been placed into the body of the young boy, the insects extracted themselves from the boy through his mouth, ears and nostrils and immediatly attacked his parents and their assistants enmasse, devouring them alive. Other members of the Aburame Clan rushed to the scene, but soon understood that they were too late when they found the boy sleeping peacefully in a pool of dried blood, while the worms preyed on the mutiliated remains of their fallen brethren. Refusing to waste decades worth of breeding and research by throwing away yet another host-subject; one who appeared to be compatible for the most part. The newly arrived Aburame proceeded to employ a powerful jutsu in unison which forced the creepers to regress back into Kaoru's body. Knowing full well that their extensive research and preparations would amount to nothing should the Hokage ever find out about what happened. In utmost secrecy, the Aburame erased any traces of Kaoru's existance and began to raise him in secret, having him explore his symbiosis with the creepers in order to reach a working potential, and to ensure that their fruits weren't wasted after such a long time of meticolous planning and development. Because of this situation, Kaoru was never once allowed outside the Aburame Household, and spent his entire childhood locked behind those delicate convent walls - however, because his life was free from any outside distractions his skill as an Aburame was allowed to flourish without unessecary diversions. However, this was also used as a way for them to motivate his progress, as the Aburame Elders promised him, that once he had grown into a fine Shinobi, and mastered the worms that lived within him, he would be allowed to go outside. It took almost two decades for this to happen, and during that time the worms had feasted upon many of Kaoru's instructors and unfortunate clanmates, but the elders had always told him the exact same thing: to remove any evidence of their death and to dispose of the body perfectly - by feeding the corpses to the worms inhabiting his body. Thus it came to be thar Kaoru grew increasingly skilled in hiding and disposing of bodies, and once he had established a bond and a working relationship with the worms that lived in symbiosis with him he could dispose of bodies without leaving behind even a drop of blood as evidence. When Kaoru was 18 years of age, he had finally managed to establish a mastery over the creatures that dwelled within him and he could finally control them at will, and give them commands without risk of them resisting. This was a good day for the Aburame clan, who felt that decades of hard work and experimentation had finally come to fruitition, a considerable number of their younger and more inexperienced Shinobi had however lost their lives over the span of Kaoru's training; but these matters were not unheard of elsewhere in the clans history and they had long since accepted that accidental deaths were something they would have to accept for the purpose of progress. Within the week, they had announced their wish for a private audience with the Hokage, to introduce Kaoru to the ANBU. They then explained that they had raised the boy from a young age to harness the creatures that lived within him, and that during their time they had found it nessecary to keep the information from everyone until the day come where they could introduce the boy to the ANBU Black Ops; which they claimed had been their sole intention from the very begining. While the Hokage was understandably not thrilled of the Aburame Clan having kept her and her predecessors in the dark for this long, she could however not deny that his upbringing would make him uniquely suited to become a part of her personal taskforce, and his abilities were indeed highly suited for the task. Thus she begrudginly allowed him to join the ANBU Black Ops. Having undergone his training with this goal in mind, Kaoru was an immense success in the ANBU - being included in many covert operations of great scope, including by not limited to eradicating a lone village off the map (the villagers consisted primarily of a tribe of bandits, and the Hokage saw them as a possible threat). A feat which Kaoru managed to accomplish largely on his own, by having immature larvae from his worm burrow underground and infest the villages primary watersource. They were then ingested together with the water into the bodies of the villagers, and inside there they laid dormant until Kaoru later awakened them, once he had confirmed that the vast majority of the villagers were now infected. Minuscule as these larvae were, they began to invade other parts of the body, eating their way out of veins, tissue and organs, even as they began to steadily grow - within days the population of the village was all but annihilated; corpses littered the streets and a sickly stench permeated the atmosphere. As he had become used to, he commanded the worms to dispose of the evidence by devouring the corpses until nothing was left, leaving the village empty and silent. He then had each of the forms return to his body and assimilate themselves into his system. Before leaving the village behind and completing their mission. Appearance As a result of having been locked away within the Aburame household for over eighteen years, Kaoru's skin is very pale, almost ethereal and his overall health is believed to be quite poor as a result of being the host to a colony of innumerable larvae and worms. Although despite this apparent physical deficiency he still manages to move with grace and precision on the battlefield, indicating that his sickly appearance is simply because of how little time he's spent outside, or perhaps a ruse to have his enemy understimate his capabilities. Kaoru's body is shrouded in a billowing black robe which conceals everything but his face and hands from sight, while the Aburame most commonly dress themselves in concealing clothing to hide the small holes which are scattered all over their body; the holes through which their specialized breed of insects, the Kikaichū leave and enter their body. Kaoru's case is abit different - for he lacks these small holes, instead - his entire body is tattoed with a total of twenty different summoning circles of varying size, each of whom being contracted to the worms that live inside his body. Because of how close the contracted creatures are to the user - using the summoning technique will consume basically nothing in the way of chakra, and likewise requires no handseals or movements to be made. Despite his harsh upbringing and the disgusting creatures which inhabit his body, Kaoru is considered to be gauntly handsome, the profile of his face being smooth yet keeping with a masculine image - with sharp edges and pronounced features. Although his slightly good looks are always offset by the grotesque nature of his abilities, and his dominion over some of the foulest insects known to the Aburame clan; the creepers. Personality While locked away within the Aburame household, the only way for Kaoru to experience the innocence of childhood was to sneak up into the highest point of the mansion and gazing in utmost secrecy on the children who played in the garden or around the Aburame estate. Kaoru himself never had the chance to experience these things as the elders of his clan ultimately decided that it was much more important for him to become a successful Shinobi and host to the creepers than to waste his time with meaningless toys and games. As a result of this, Kaoru became outwardly cold and direct, with no patience for games or nonsense - never having been allowed to experience any of these things growing up. Kaoru never complained though, cause he had learned to accept from a young age, that until he learned to control his worms; he could never approach anyone, because it would mean that he'd put others in grave danger by giving the worms access to human flesh. But it would also mean that he could risk ruining the Aburame clans fine reputation and put the hard work and perseverence of his very ancestors to nothing. Kaoru, desperate to maintain the only bond he ever had, and with the knowledge that he had nothing else but them accepted this duty and swore that he would make his clan proud, and fulfill his reason for existing to the best of his ability. Loneliness is a mighty emotion, and Kaoru experienced it often - for while he was apart of a large and powerful clan, he could never shake off the feeling that he was different from the rest. The perfect symbiosis between Aburame and the Kikaichū was something Kaoru for a very long time longed for intensely. For while they could live in harmony with one another, he had to constantly keep himself away from others to prevent the worms within him from awakening, for these ravenous creatures ate everything they were allowed to, whether it be friend, family or foe - and until he had grown accustomed to them, Kaoru was to serve as their prison. Its not odd then, that Kaoru would come to crave the intracies of relationships like love and friendship with an insatiable passion; his desperation for these things lead him to request books from libraries and bookstores all over Konoha. In particular, Kaoru enjoyed reading romances, something which he felt he himself could never achieve, having come to look upon himself with horror for what he was. Nevertheless, his desire for this, and his facination with these relationships lead him to develop his own ninja way over time: "To protect love and companionship from the shadows, and by any means nessecary". Abilities Having had no other distractions while growing up (except for the occassional romance or two), Kaoru was allowed to prosper as a Shinobi before anything else - infact, it wasn't merely expected of him to become a powerful Shinobi, it was infact crucial - because otherwise he would not be capable of asserting authority over the worms inhabiting his body and in such a scenario would eventually lose control and be consumed by them. However, Kaoru's abilities as a Shinobi were always focused primarily on improving his symbiosis with the worms; and thus his abilities with other forms of Ninja Combat suffered, to overcome this weakness Kaoru learned how to command the worms inside him to perform various tasks in unison, in ways which are known to greatly resemble Ninjutsu, and which makes use of the creatures. In battle, Kaoru usually employs a stationary form of combat, which makes heavy use of worms summoned forth from the dozen summoning circles which cover his entire body - allowing him to distance himself from the heat of combat and meticolously direct his minions to strike where they might do the most damage. While doing this, he's also known to make elaborate use of simple Ninjutsu-abilities, taking full advantage of his ability to employ all the basic elemental natures, thanks to his Worm Cube organ. Creeper Physiology The body of a Creeper is composed of an indeterminable number of segments, which may contract, extend or even vanish depending on the creatures needs. While this unique feature was rarely employed to its greatest extremes out in the wilds for various reasons detrimental to the creatures body, decades of choice breeding by the Aburame clan have allowed them to extend to truly massive proportions, allowing Kaoru, who has come to master these creatures to have them expand in both length and girth, at truly alarming rates, allowing them to extend from being very small to having a body length of several meters in the span of several seconds, although once extended, it takes a longer period of time for the creature to successfully contract their body back to a small enough size so that they may successfully reenter Kaoru's body; usually bringing with them genes, DNA, chakra and other souvenirs from the bodies of Kaoru's enemies, these findings are often grafted into the Worm Cube organ. The carapace of Creepers is also noted to be highly elastic, but despite this flexibility, its noted to be rather sturdy, especially so against attacks delivered by ninja tools or crushing Taijutsu blows; with this density of the skin only further increasing based upon the worms overall body mass, which can be changed at will by commanding them through the Worm Core. The head of the Creepers consists of a seven distinct brown tentacle-like "theeth" protruding from a large circular mouth like a seven tongues, each of these "tongues" have several rows of tiny barbed theeth like protrusions which are loosened when the creature bites a person and is usually left in the wound. These theeth however are not theeth in the common sense of the word but rather fertile eggs which when they're burrowed into the flesh of a target will quickly hatch into larvae; who immediately start eating voraciously from the body of their unwilling host before forcibly exiting through the body itself, finding their way back to Kaoru wher they enter him through the summoning circles and deposit their findings in the Worm Cube. Literally eating themselves out of the targets flesh, causing varying degrees of internal injury depending on how deep the initial wound was and of many there are of them in the body at once. This process is known to be very painful but the wounds left by the creepers are noted to be fairly simple to handle for seasoned medical-nin, however, the initial bite of the creepers is often known to cause severe infections due to the saliva of the creepers, which is heavily suffused with the decaying remains of previous meals, rotten flesh and various often conflicting body traits. Because of this, the bite of the creeper is rightly feared, and fatal injuries are fairly common. While creepers usually employ their seven tongues for lashing onto the victim and rasping off pieces of flesh while simultaneously inserting their own eggs into the open wounds - creepers are also capable of directly eating a person alive, with their large circular mouths sometimes being elongated and distended to swallow a grown human whole, and the sheer pressure of the creatures jaws is noted to be so powerful as to easily maim victims, provided the creature is of great size, otherwise the damage depends upon the exact size of the beast at the time it bit. Creepers eat in a manner similiar to many other worms, by quite literally burrowing their head into the body and swallowing large amounts of meat, while even a single bite from a sufficiently large creeper is enough to kill - Kaoru most commonly has them attack enmasse, and his battle style often revolves around catching and consuming unsuspecting adversaries by means of the creepers. However, for all of their prowess and uses, the creepers have one distinct weakness; a suspectibility to frigid cold and temperatures, this causes them to become sluggish, slow and predictable, something which has the added effects of preventing the eggs released by creeper bites from hatching. However, while they're highly suspectible to freezing temperatures, they're likewise known to react very postively to heat, which invigorates them and can make them enter a feeding frenzy, empowering them significantly and increasing the reproduction rates of the eggs they imbed directly onto the body of Kaoru's adversaries, causing them to grow and mature much quicker. When empowered by heat, the creepers skin harden even further, they can extend to great lengths with much greater fluidity and ease, and they absorb and provide more chakra for the Worm Cube. Their reactive abilities and general speed is also increased as well, in accordance with the heat in the atmosphere. Worm Techniques Kaoru's close affinity with the creepers inhabiting his body, formed over the span of two and a half decade starting with when the worms were permitted to use him as their host has in addition to influencing his sickly appearance and the rather unique composition of his body led to him possessing several worm-related techniques. These peculiar techniques all stem from the worms inhabiting his body and all share the common traits of having an extremely quick rate of invocation, as all Kaoru needs to do to summon these grotesque creatures is to concentrate on the grand scope of summoning circles covering his body. Kaoru's ability to summon these worms immediately for offensive, defensive and supplementary purposes have had people compare him and his worms to the infamous snake-oriented techniques of Orochimaru himself. Indeed, Kaoru's techniques are known to come off as highly similiar to those of Orochimaru at times, even though he replaces the snakes with his own worms. Most of Kaoru's abiltities stem directly from the Worm Core created by the creepers, which in addition to granting him almost insurmountable high-speed regeneration, protection from most diseases, venoms and poisons also allows him to remotely control the worms he relies upon for battle; as well as being capable of using their senses in place of his own, effectively making him insuspectible to most Genjutsu in the process. In battle, Kaoru's attacks are noted for the flexibility, extremely long reach and above all else a gruesome efficiency - with enemies typically being overwhelmed in moments and eaten alive by innumerable worms, big and small who feasts on their flesh and identifies and catalogues every single speck of DNA within Kaoru's Worm Cube for analyzis and if possible, empowering their host, and thus ensuring their own continued survival. Due to his Worm Cube containing DNA from hundreds of different Shinobi he's encountered and devoured in the past, Kaoru is capable of employing all of the five ordinary elemental natures; however - he lacks the ability to use each of them proficiently on their own and many of his techniques thus deal with combining elemental natures with his worms for great effect. Such as his trademark Earth Release Technique - a Ninjutsu created by combining fine chakra control with the unique properties of the worm cube and adding other properties in order to create a nigh-impenetrable defensive technique. Kaoru has developed quite a few applications and variations of existing techniques, particularly the ones stemming from Orochimaru. These techniques are frequently of a summoning nature and Kaoru learns them in order to complement his fighting style, which is noted to be almost entirely dependent on summoning. According to intelligence gathered by the ANBU - Kaoru has only enough space to support around 200 worms within his body at any one time, and the worms frequently cannibalize one another in order to conserve space. When a worm cannibalizes another worm, the DNA and secrets the devoured worm has collected becomes a part of the worm that devoured it, therefore ensuring that no resources are truly lost. It's known that the fewer the quantity of worms in his body, the slower the Worm Core's properties of regeneration works, meaning that while using his most powerful techniques - he consequently leaves himself much more vulnerable to counterattacks than normal. Because they're of a set number, and the Worm Core actively ceases reproduction of new worms once that limit has been reached, each worm killed is the same as weakening Kaoru's abilities. Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: This variation functions almost identical to the original technique, in that it uses Kaoru's summoning circles to conjure several medium-sized worms from his body, these worms then move out of his clothes through the sleeves of his robes and surge outwards towards an enemy. Coiling themselves around them in a most snake-like fashion to restrain them or more commonly surging onwards and using their toothed tongues to burrow their way into the flesh of Kaoru's opponent. Once inside they start to ravenously feast on the body from the inside, while others of their brethren restrain the hapless ninja to prevent escape. Usually, they leave tiny eggs within the flesh which soon hatch and join their parents for the feast. Kaoru can choose to utilize these worms in a number of ways, such as using them to create a momentary barrier by using their coils as a living shield, he can use them to make use of several of the Aburame clan's secret Ninjutsu techniques or he can have them detach from his body to function as external threats or scouts for his benefit. Furthermore, each of the worms can also be used as a medium through which Kaoru can employ elemental transformation techniques, as they're deeply connected to his chakra reserves, this option only exists for worms whom are still attached to his body however. Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: The empowered version of the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands technique, this functions exactly like it with one primary exception. The size of the worms procured, the worms move out of his sleeves as normal, but the moment they've accomplished this they immediately use their soft physique to extend their bodies up to a total range of 150 feet. Making this much more effective at long range than it's parent technique. In combat this is mostly used to overwhelm multiple opponents at once, being more well-suited for large-scale assault than the standard technique. Enemies faced by techniques are often overwhelmed immediately, being filled with an overpowering sense of disgust as the smooth oiy bodies of the worms literally digs into their bodies and devours them alive. As always, the worms return to Kaoru after feeding to assimilate their findings into the Worm Cube. Normally, the fully extended worms cannot travel back right away as while it takes a short amount of time for them to extend, it is a much longer process to contract, meaning that they stay in this form until the end of a battle. Unlike the actual Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands technique used by Orochimaru, the number of such worms summoned are much smaller, typically being between five and twenty, depending on the challenge. Category:ANBU Category:Male Category:Characters Category:Aburame clan